TechNet Welcomes User Review Site Yelp as New Member

Washington, DC – TechNet, the bipartisan policy and political network of CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, today announced the addition of Yelp (yelp.com) as a new TechNet member.

Yelp, the nation’s largest online consumer review guide helps people find great local businesses to patronize, based on the informed opinions of a vibrant and active community of individuals. In November 2010, the site had more than 39 million unique monthly visitors and since its launch more than 14 million reviews have been posted to the site.

“We are very proud to welcome Yelp to TechNet and to work with them to enact public policies that support the growth of innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit that fuels our economy,” said Rey Ramsey, President and CEO of TechNet. “Yelp is a terrific company that is moving to the next level in its growth stage with millions of monthly visitors and hundreds of employees.”

“TechNet is the nation’s premier organization representing the innovation industry and the policies that matter to our sector,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, Co-Founder and CEO of Yelp. “We look forward to working with TechNet on the important issues of providing consumers and businesses with trustworthy information online, protecting commercial speech online and promoting entrepreneurship and innovation across the board.”

Jeremy Stoppelman co-founded Yelp in July 2004 with former colleague Russel Simmons. Prior to Yelp, Jeremy was the VP of engineering at PayPal. He left PayPal in the summer of 2003 to attend Harvard Business School. He joined a start-up incubator in 2004 and left Harvard to launch Yelp. Jeremy holds a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Illinois.

Yelp has quickly expanded to seven countries (US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Austria) and has developed popular mobile applications for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre and WAP, to help users tap into Yelp reviews on the go.

About TechNet:

TechNet is the national, bipartisan network of CEOs that promotes the growth of technology industries and the economy by building long-term relationships between technology leaders and policymakers and by advocating a targeted policy agenda. TechNet’s members represent more than one million employees in the fields of information technology, clean energy, biotechnology, e-commerce and finance. TechNet has offices in Washington, DC, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Seattle, Boston and Austin,Texas. Web address: www.technet.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @technetupdate.